Today
the Lord tells a humorous story of an unjust judge and a persistent widow. “If
I don't give her what she wants, she’s going to finish me off,” the judge says.
This is a sentiment experienced by every parish priest as he sees that five of
his ten voice messages come from the same lady. The Lord is having a bit of fun
with us while reminding us that our loving Father will respond to our continual
prayers. We have to keep praying. We can't give up, even when, especially when,
it seems that our prayers are not being heard. The problem is that we are used
to getting immediate results. We have a question, we Google it, and immediately
an answer appears. This is fine for the physical life, but prayer is not
physical. It is spiritual. When we
pray, we are calling upon God to fulfill our needs, not Google to give us an
answer. And our needs will be met, often not in the way we expect, but better
than our expectations. For example, we pray night and day for a loved one who
is dying. The person passes away, but dies peacefully ready to embrace the next
life. We are grief struck, but at the same time, our prayers have drawn us
closer to God. Our prayers were answered, just not in the way we expected. There
are many times that most of us have been seriously sick or injured. We have
prayed, and others have prayed for us.
Time passes, perhaps years, and we realize that we are better off than
before our sickness or injury. We can't give up on prayer, be it for our
personal needs, or the needs of others. Every single one of us is a member of
the Body of Christ. Sometimes we priests present this in a negative way,
explaining how our sins affect others. Today's readings present the positive
view. Our prayer strengthens all
the members of the Body of Christ. We need to pray for our Church. We need to
pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. We need priests. We
need sisters and brothers. We need our bishops, including our pope, to be open
to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Pope Francis has been turning the ship of
the Church to a greater commitment to the poor and the pastoral needs of the
people. Some people are having a
problem with this. Big ships do not turn easily. We have a responsibility to pray for the guidance of the
Holy Spirit and the acceptance of this guidance. We all need to pray for the
Church. We need to pray for our country. All of us need to pray that our
country truly be one nation under God. Granted there is money to be made by selling nose
clips at the entrances to the voting booths, but our problems are deeper than
our candidates. The antipathy and outright hatred that we see expressed every
day in many areas of American life is frightening. Have we Americans lost our Christian soul? Me and you want
our children to live in a country where people are united in caring for each
other, not divided into various groups of bigotry and hatred. Me and you want
our children to live in a country where there is respect, respect for life and
respect for each other. Right now
we are going through grim times. This does not give us the right to give up on
our country. We need to pray for our country, continually asking God to soften
hard heart. We need to pray for our young people. They are both the present and
the future of the Church. The next battle for the Kingdom of God will be waged
by the young. We cannot give up on prayer. We cannot give up on God. I want to
remind you of the three great lies of the devil. The first is: You are not good enough. The second great lie is: You are alone
and the third great lie is: That God has lied to us. We counter that first lie by affirming that God has made us
good enough. His mercy is
infinitely greater than our sins. We cannot fall for the lie that our human
failings prevent us from being effective members of the Kingdom of God. The
devil’s second lie, that we are alone, is proved wrong by our personal
experiences of God’s presence as well as the Words of Scripture. When St. Matthew concluded his Gospel
he closed with the words all of us need to remember every day. Jesus said, “Know that I am with you
always.” The third great deception
of the devil is the blasphemy that God has lied to us. No, God does not lie. He
has said that He is a Loving Father and He has proven this to us in many, many
ways, the most important of which was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. “God so loved the world that He gave us
His only Son,” John 3:16 teaches.
Our God is wonderfully in love with each one of us. Today's readings
tell us to persevere in prayer we cannot give up on God. Today’s readings remind
us that God will never give up on us • AE
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